Ray Seals, who has become remarkable to go to the NFL without ever going to university, A died at the age of 59.
Seals was a star football player at Henninger High School in Syracuse, but he decided not to go to university and start working after obtaining his secondary school diploma in 1984 to help support his family. Seals did not stop playing football, however, joining a semi -professional team in Syracuse.
Seals played so well in semipro football that a football coach of the region began to call the NFL teams to exhort them to sign it as a free -drained agent. The only NFL head coach to listen was Ray Perkins des Buccaneers, who had previously met seals during a recruitment trip when Seals was at high school and Perkins was a head coach of Alabama. Perkins agreed to give Seals a shot.
The Buccaneers ended up signing seals in 1988, although he did not play at all that year. In 1989, he played as a replacement in two games and in 1990, he played as a replacement in eight games, but in 1991, he obtained a starting job and was starting at Tampa Bay for three years.
In 1994, Seals signed a free agent contract with the Steelers, and he was starting in Pittsburgh for two years, including the 1995 season when he started 16 games in the regular season and the three games in the playoffs, concluding in the Super Bowl XXX, where the Steelers lost but Seals had a good match, including a Troy Aikman bag.
In addition to this Aikman bag, Seals is known for its role in the first completion – and the first take – of the Brett Favre career in Green Bay Packers: Favre launched a pass, The seals inclined it in the airFavre caught him and Seals attacked him behind the melee line.
After missing all the 1996 season with an injury, Seals signed with the Panthers in 1997 and played one more season, then signed with Bengals in 1998 but was never on the field.
Garry Acchione, seals teammate of their stay in Syracuse, told Syracuse.com that the people who played with him always knew what it was necessary to go to the NFL.
“We were all behind him. We were rooted for him as if you could not believe, to have this opportunity to do so,” said Acchione. “I never had any doubt in my mind that it was good enough to play in the NFL, I mean, we all knew it. It’s just, ok, how are you taking it there? How does he have the opportunity? Because at the time, I mean, he did not get out of the university. You are not just going to walk on a professional team and do it. ”
But that’s what Sceals did, ranging from semi-semi football to a bag in the Super Bowl, finishing one of the most unique stories in the history of the NFL.
